He is currently working on two projects: a comparative analysis of the dialogue records (yulu or goroku) attributed to Chan masters, compiled in the early Song dynasty; and the social and institutional history of Buddhism as conceived through a text also compiled in the early Song dynasty, Zanning’s Topical History of Buddhism (Seng shilue). Stemming from this latter research interest, Professor Welter has also developed a broader interest in Chinese administrative policies toward religion, including Chinese notions of secularism and their impact on religious beliefs and practices. His work also encompasses Buddhist interactions with Neo-Confucianism and literati culture.

Mr. Cooper was among the original instigators of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. In the mid-1980s, he organized Thich Nhat Hanh’s first two teaching tours of the U.S., and served as his personal assistant. During Mr. Cooper’s tenure as head of the board of directors, he helped steer BPF into a prolonged period of acute organizational crisis. Then he retired.
In an effort to minimize the damage done to the Buddhadharma, all sentient beings, and himself, Mr. Cooper took up the life of a civilian, something for which he proved singularly ill-suited. Today he lives in Olympia, Washington, with his wife, Liz, and their daughter, Alana. He is the features editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
You can contact Andrew at editorial [at] tricycle.com

Ann Gleig is assistant professor of religion and cultural studies at the University of Central Florida. She is currently working on a book project tracing recent developments in American convert Buddhism under contract with Yale University Press.

Ann Myosho Kyle Brown is a Soto Zen priest who co-leads The Little River Zen Center with Dr. Michael Brown. She began her formal Zen practice in 1993 at Kojinan Temple under the guidance of Gengo Akiba, Roshi, now retired Japanese Bishop of Soto Zen in North America. She was ordained on February 02, 2002 and trained for three months at the Aichi Senmon Niso-do, a training temple for Soto Zen nuns. She also trained one further month in Japan at Kichijoin and Eihei-ji and, one year ago, participated in the Sotoshu ango held at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center. Brown is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

Arthur Braverman was born on December 8, 1942 in Bronx New York City in the neighborhood of Pelham Parkway. He attended New York City College where he got his bachelor’s degree in Physics. After living in Nigeria for two years through Peace Corps he went to Japan to study Zen Buddhism. He studied under Kosho Uchiyama Roshi at Antaiji, a small zen temple, for seven years.

Augusto Alcalde (born 1950) is an Argentinean Zen teacher with the Chin Lien Chia (of Chan) and one of the first Dharma Successors of the late Robert Aitken. He also was fully authorized as a zen teacher by his first teacher the Monk Yuan Chueh in the year 1974.

Barbara Fishman is a student of Sensei Jules Shuzen Harris and Dharma Holder at Soji Zen Center. She has practiced Zen for five years and prior to that studied Mindfulness Meditation with Shinzen Young for twenty-five years.
Barbara received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 1979 and in the following years developed a private practice as a psychotherapist. She is also the leader of an in-house service of the non-profit, Resources for Human Development where she and her team provide clinical consultation, organizational development, training and education.
Barbara is the author of three books: Resonance: The New Chemistry of Love, Emotional Healing Through Mindfulness Meditation, and The Common Good Corporation, The Experiment Has Worked!

Barry Briggs JDPSN (b. 1946) is a Ji Do Poep Sa Nim in the Kwan Um School of Zen. He received inka from Zen Master Soeng Hyang in 2013. He began training in the Kwan Um School of Zen in 1990 and took Bodhisattva Teacher precepts in 2001. In 2005 he retired from senior management positions in the software and Internet industries. Although based in Seattle, he travels widely to lead retreats around the world.

Barry Magid is a psychoanalyst in New York City and the Zen Teacher at the Ordinary Mind Zendo, having received Dharma transmission from Charlotte Joko Beck at the Zen Center of San Diego in 1999. He is the author of Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychoanalysis, Ending the Pursuit of Happiness: A Zen Guide, and Nothing Is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans.

Bodhin Kjolhede is the Abbot and Director of the Rochester Zen Center. Prior to coming to the Center in 1970, he received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan. He was ordained as a Buddhist priest in 1976 and went on to spend several years traveling extensively with the Center’s founder, Roshi Philip Kapleau, and working closely with him on three of his books.

After completing twelve years of koan training under Roshi Kapleau, Roshi Kjolhede spent a year on pilgrimage through Japan, China, India, Tibet, and Taiwan. In 1986 he was installed by Roshi Kapleau as his Dharma successor and, the following year, Abbot of the Center. Since then he has conducted hundreds of meditation retreats, most of seven days, in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Mexico. He has published numerous articles and travels widely to participate in Buddhist teachers’ conferences. He now devotes most of his time to teaching at the Rochester Zen Center and conducting retreats at Chapin Mill, its country retreat center, and playing tennis when he can.

In his more than 30 years of teaching, Roshi Kjolhede has sanctioned five of his students as Zen teachers; they now lead Zen centers in Mexico, Sweden and Finland, Germany, and New Zealand.

Zen Master Bon Hae (Judith Roitman) is a Zen teacher with the Kwan Um School of Zen. She began practicing Zen with Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1976 at the Cambridge Zen Center. She was one of the founders of the Kansas Zen Center in 1978 and received inka (authorization to teach) from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1998. On April 6, 2013, Roitman received dharma transmission in Seung Sahn's lineage. She is the Guiding Teacher of the Kansas Zen Center, the Red Earth Zen Center in Oklahoma, and Deming Zen Center in New Mexico. Zen Master Bon Hae is married to Zen Master Hae Kwang Stanley Lombardo, also of the Kwan Um School of Zen.

Caitríona Reed began her practice at Same Ling Monastery in Scotland in 1970, and went on to study with teachers in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. She has led retreats since 1981.
She was a senior teacher in Thich Nhat Hahn’s Order of Interbeing, and received the Lamp transmission from him in 1992. Prior to meeting Thich Nhat Hanh she trained in Sri Lanka at Kanduboda Monastery (with Sivali Thera) and at Rockhill Hermitage (with Akasa Thera and Kassapa Thera); in the U.K. (with Ajahn Summedo); and in the U.S. with teachers such as the teachers at Insight Meditation, Dipa Ma, Munindra, Mahaghosananda, Ananda Maitreya Thera, Ajahn Sobim and others. Through most of the 80′s and until the establishment of Manzanita Village in 1993, she led retreats at Dhamma Dena, Ruth Denison’s Retreat Center in the Mojave Desert. She continues to look to Ruth as a significant inspiration and is clear that it would never have been possible to establish Manzanita Village retreat center without the inspiration of Dhamma Dena.
Asked why she is no longer formally associated with Thich Nhat Hanh and his tradition she replied. “I have immense respect and gratitude for the contribution that Thich Nhat Hanh has made to our understanding of Buddhist teachings and practice, and of course deep gratitude for the years I spent with him as his student. For very personal reasons I felt the need to distance myself as best as I could from hierarchical institutions. While such institutions can serve people in many ways they also foster abstractions and belief systems that can disempower individuals in the name of spiritual practice. I look to the work of Bateson, Korzybski, current explorations in neuroscience, and contemporary accelerated personal change modalities, in addition to all I have learned in forty years of Dharma practice, for my inspiration and instruction now.”
As well as teaching retreats and workshops Caitriona is a poet, and a Master Trainer of NLP and Hypnosis. She works as a catalyst for change with highly motivated individuals and organizations worldwide.

Carolyn Atkinson - Eiko Joshin - is a Dharma Heir of the late Kobun Chino Ototgawa Roshi, and has been practicing Zen Buddhist meditation since 1973. Carolyn is a priest in the Sōtō Zen tradition and is guiding teacher at Everyday Dharma Zen Center in Santa Cruz, CA. She received Dharma Transmission from her Teacher before his unexpected death in 2002. She is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association (AZTA) and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA). She has also studied in the Vipassana tradition, and is a trained Community Dharma Leader. She combines elements from both lineages in her teaching. As a householder practitioner, Carolyn has lived in Santa Cruz for many years and is the mother of two grown sons. In addition, she studied traditional Chinese medicine in San Francisco and in China. She practiced acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine in Santa Cruz from 1982 to 2001. She has taught the New Year's Sesshin at Stiftung Felsentor in Switzerland for six years, from 2005 to 2010, and is scheduled to teach there again in December 2012. Her first book, Quiet Mind Open Heart: A Practice Period in Meditation, was published in 2007. Her latest book, A Light in the Mind, was published in 2010.

Catherine Spaeth has written art criticism for numerous publications and currently teaches the history of art and the history of art criticism at the Pratt Institute's graduate school, as well as the history of contemporary art at Purchase College.

Charles S. Prebish came to Utah State University in January 2007 following more than thirty-five years on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University. During his tenure at Utah State University, he was the first holder of the Charles Redd Endowed Chair in Religious Studies and served as Director of the Religious Studies Program. During his career, Dr. Prebish published more than twenty books and nearly one hundred scholarly articles and chapters. His books Buddhist Monastic Discipline (1975) and Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (1999) are considered classic volumes in Buddhist Studies. Dr. Prebish remains the leading pioneer in the establishment of the study of Western Buddhism as a sub-discipline in Buddhist Studies. In 1993 he held the Visiting Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary, and in 1997 was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation National Humanities Fellowship for research at the University of Toronto. Dr. Prebish has been an officer in the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and was co-founder of the Buddhism Section of the American Academy of Religion. In 1994, he co-founded the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, which was the first online peer-reviewed journal in the field of Buddhist Studies; and in 1996, co-founded the Routledge "Critical Studies in Buddhism" series. He has also served as editor of the Journal of Global Buddhism and Critical Review of Books in Religion. In 2005, he was honored with a "festschrift" volume by his colleagues titled Buddhist Studies from India to America: Essays in Honor of Charles S. Prebish. Dr. Prebish retired from Utah State University on December 31, 2010, and was awarded emeritus status. He currently resides in State College, Pennsylvania.

Christopher Hamacher was born in Montreal, Canada in 1972. After graduating in law, he began to study philosophy and Zen Buddhism instead of pursuing a legal career. He moved to Munich in 1998 and soon thereafter started practicing Zen under Kokugyo Kuwahara. From 2000 to 2002 he travelled several times to Japan and spent almost a year at the Rinzai Zen monastery Ryutaku-ji under the current abbot and Zen master Kyudo Nakagawa.
Christopher continues to live and practice in Munich under Kuwahara Sensei, while returning on occasion to Japan for retreats with Kyudo Roshi. He is married and works part-time as a legal secretary. On December 8, 2005, he was appointed by Kuwahara Sensei to take over the direction of the Munich Dojo.

Christopher Titmuss, a senior Dharma teacher in the West, offers retreats, facilitates pilgrimages and leads Dharma Gatherings worldwide. His teachings focus on insight meditation (vipassana), the expansive heart and enquiry into emptiness and liberation. Poet and social critic, he is the author of numerous books including Light on Enlightenment, An Awakened Life and Poems from the Edge. More than 100 of his talks are freely available on www.archive.org and other talks offered on his website. Christopher writes a weekly Dharma blog on a wide variety of global issues. A former Buddhist monk in Thailand and India, he is the founder of the online Mindfulness Training Course. He teaches in Australia, Israel, France and Germany every year. Christopher has been teaching annual retreats in India since 1975. He lives in Totnes, Devon, England

Chuck Kōdō Greer is a Zen practitioner and aikido student. He has been practicing Zen since the early 70's, and has been a student of Osho Jay Rinsen Weik (Zen and aikido) for the past 11 years. He accepted the Buddhist precepts in 2010. He has dual degrees in Botany and Civil Engineering. Chuck has also been a student of Japanese culture and the martial arts for many years, and studied Japanese culture, gardens and aikido in Japan for three months in 2013.

Clear Water is the name of the Zendo at the Vallejo Zen Center. It is a Soto Zen Buddhist Temple in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and the San Francisco and Berkeley Zen Centers. The center offers regular meditation, meditation instruction, classes, one-day sittings, work practice, lectures and special workshops.

David R. Loy is a Buddhist philosopher who writes on the interaction between Buddhism and modernity. He has been practicing Zen since 1971 and is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo-Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. David has taught at the National University of Singapore and Bunkyo University in Japan. From 2006 to 2010 he was the Besl Family Chair Professor of ethics/religion and society at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Dharma Rain Zen Center is a Soto Zen temple for lay practice. It is dedicated to helping people cultivate and realize Zen Buddhism in normal, everyday American lives. The temple is committed to maintaining an open and accessible atmosphere that is, at the same time, conducive to a deep, intimate, and well-balanced practice.

Domyo Burk (b. 1971) began Zen practice at Dharma Rain Zen Center (DRZC) in 1996 and was ordained as a Zen monk in 2001 by Gyokuko Carlson Roshi. The first seven years of Domyo’s monastic training were spent in full-time residential practice at DRZC except for a practice period at Tassajara monastery in California and time practicing at Great Vow Zen monastery in Oregon.

Rosan Yoshida, founder and director of Missouri Zen Center, received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi in 1989 and from Tsugen Narasaki Roshi in 1993. He was certified by Soto Shu as an international teacher in 1994. He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University and M.A. from Tokyo University. He is the author of NO SELF - A Systematic Interpretation of Buddhism and Limitless Life: Dogen's World as well as other books, articles and translations. He participated in the Parliament of the World's Religions and is promoting the Global Ethic. He is a primary founder and advisor of the Global System Ethic Association.

Elihu Genmyo Smith began his Zen training in 1974 at the Zen Studies Society in New York with Soen Nakagawa Roshi and Eido Shimano Roshi. He continued his training at Zen Center of Los Angeles, where he was ordained a Buddhist priest by Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi in 1979. After completing formal koan study with Maezumi Roshi, in 1984 he continued his training with Charlotte Joko Beck at Zen Center of San Diego. Genmyo received Dharma transmission (shiho) and authorization to teach from Joko in 1992. He is a co-founder of the Ordinary Mind Zen School and currently lives in Champaign, Illinois where he is resident teacher of the Prairie Zen Center.

Erik Fraser Storlie (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1976, M.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1965, B.A. University of Minnesota, 1958) began a practice of sitting meditation in 1964 with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He studied with Dainin Katagiri Roshi, helping to found the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. His publications include Nothing on my Mind (Shambhala 1996)), “Zen On Ice” (Quest Winter 1998), “Earth’s Original Face” (Shambhala Sun March 2001), "Sawtooth Sesshin" (Shambhala Sun March 2002), and “Notes on a Friendship with James Wright,” (Five Points: A Journal of Literature and Art vol. II, no. 3, 2007). He currently leads retreats and teaches meditation and mindfulness for the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota.

From 1995-2008, Eshu studied and trained with Hoju Eshin Osho, and Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi. In February 2008, Eshu ended his affiliation with Joshu Sasaki Roshi, and with Rinzai-ji Inc., Joshu Roshi's organization. Eshu has trained (2008-2011) with Kozan Gentei Osho, Abbot of the North Carolina Zen Center, and is currently continuing his training with Kokan Genjo Marinello Osho, Abbot of Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji in Seattle Washington.

Eshu Osho lives with his wife Niki and their two children at Zenwest's main Zendo in Sooke, BC.

Eshu is committed to increasing awareness of, and creating more opportunities for, Buddhist practice on Vancouver Island. He served as Buddhist Chaplain at the University of Victoria's Interfaith Chaplaincy (2004-2010), is the past chair of the World Interfaith Education Association (BC) and has served as a committee member on the Vancouver Island Health Authority's Spirituality in Mental Health and Addictions Initiative.

Ezra Bayda (born 1944) is a member of the White Plum Asanga and has been practicing meditation since 1970. He originally trained in the Gurdjieff tradition, living in a community led by Robert De Ropp. He began formal Zen practice in 1978, studying first with Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and then later with Jakusho Kwong Roshi. In 1992 he began working with Charlotte Joko Beck, and began teaching in 1995, receiving dharma transmission in 1998.
His teachings are a blend of the Zen and Gurdjieff traditions, and are also influenced by Stephen Levine and Pema Chodron, with their emphasis on the need for loving kindness as an essential part of practice. He has been a hospice volunteer for over ten years, and has authored five books, including Being Zen and Zen Heart.
He now lives and teaches at Zen Center San Diego with his wife and fellow Zen teacher, Elizabeth Hamilton. They also lead meditation retreats in the U.S. and abroad. Ezra also established a sitting group in Santa Rosa, Ca., which he visits once a month.

Flint Sparks (born December 10, 1951) is a Soto Zen teacher who leads retreats throughout the United States and Europe. He was ordained in 2001 by Zenkei Blanche Hartman of the San Francisco Zen Center and was given Teacher Acknowledgment in a ceremony at the Austin Zen Center in 2007. Flint also has over thirty years experience in the practice and teaching of psychotherapy. His academic training includes graduate degrees in both biology and psychology. He has extensive postdoctoral training in mindfulness based psychotherapies and group therapy with specialty training in both the Hakomi Method and Internal Family Systems Model. His traditional Zen training began at the San Francisco Zen Center and continued at the Austin Zen Center which he founded and nourished as a leader in its early years. Currently he is a resident teacher at Appamada, a center for Zen practice and inquiry in Austin, Texas.
Today, Flint’s teaching and consulting bridge the fields of health psychology, the psychology of contemplative practices, and traditional Zen Buddhist practice. His early research and counseling experience with the terminally ill inspired him to continue investigating the influence of consciousness in physical healing and emotional well-being. In response to witnessing the difficult struggles of both patients and family members dealing with chronic illness and death, he began to search for spiritual practices which would support and deepen his psychological work. This led him to an ever deepening commitment to Buddhist teachings and practices. Together, these two primary areas of interest – psychology and Buddhist practice – form the strands of the double-helix of full human maturity – personal and spiritual development. These are the ongoing practices of growing up and waking up.
In addition to his clinical work, organizational consulting, and teaching responsibilities with the Appamada sangha, Flint is an adjunct faculty at Seton Cove, a spiritual education center associated with the Seton Family of Hospitals in Austin, Texas. There he co-leads programs in contemplative leadership and teaches in the area of interfaith dialogue. He now combines this leadership training and his many years of experience in cancer care in his work with the LIVESTRONG leadership team. In addition, he is a partner in Civic Interests, a creative group of seasoned professionals committed to making a difference in the local Austin community.

Gary Enns received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from California State University, Fresno. He currently teaches literature, composition, and creative writing at Cerro Coso Community College. His fiction has appeared in publications such as Granta, Crazyhorse, The Santa Barbara Review, The Willow Review, and Southern Humanities Review. Since 2000, he has coordinated and edited Cerro Coso's literary journal, Metamorphoses: A Journal of Literature and Art. He received bodhisattva ordination from Robert Livingston Roshi at the New Orleans Zen Temple and serves as Vice President of the Zen Fellowship of Bakersfield (www.zenfellowship.org).

Kokan Genjo Marinello Osho (born 1954) is the current Abbot of Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji in Seattle, WA, a Rinzai Zen temple. Genjo Osho began his Zen training in 1975, and was ordained an unsui (priest in training) in 1980. During 1981-82 he trained at RyutakuJi in Japan. Genjo Osho was formally installed as the second Abbot of Chobo-Ji on Rinzai Zenji's (d.866) memorial day January 10th, 1999. Genjo Osho is also psychotherapist in private practice, a certificated spiritual director from a program affiliated with the Vancouver School of Theology, married to wife, Carolyn, and devoted father to daughter, Adrienne. Chobo-Ji temple is in the Rinzai - Hakuin Ekaku Zenji Dharma Line, after Genki Roshi retired, Genjo Marinello Osho trained with Eido Shimano, former abbot of DaiBosatsu Monastery in New York, who affirmed Genjo Osho as a Dharma Heir on May 21st, 2008. Genjo Osho-san is a member of the American Zen Teachers Association.

Gerald McLoughlin is a Zen student and member of the Southern Palm Zen Group (http://floridazen.com/) in the suburban wilds of southwest Florida. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer (Korea) and retired Foreign Service Officer with extensive overseas experience, primarily in Asia and Africa. Gerald has a BA from Southern Connecticut State College (now Southern Connecticut State University) and master’s degrees from Hunter College (CUNY) in TESOL and the US Army War College in Strategic Studies. He has also done graduate work in Buddhist Studies. Married for 29 years, he has one adult son.

I was born in San Francisco in 1986 to Buddhist parents, and started meditating seriously when I was 18. When I was 21 years old, I received temporary ordination in the Burmese Theravada tradition in Bodh Gaya, India. After graduating from college, I visited Japan and met Suzuki Seido Roshi, who ordained me in the Soto lineage in 2010. I trained at Toshoji Senmon Sodo for 1.5 years, and Aichi Senmon Nisodo, the women's monastery led by Aoyama Shundo Roshi, for three years. In 2014, after realizing that language was becoming a barrier, I left the monastic system to study Japanese intensively at the University level. I am interested in writing (and reading) about Zen, Buddhism, Japanese culture, tradition, modernity, feminism, sexuality, ethics and morality.

About online discussions:

I started this blog to connect with family and friends. Coming out four and a half years of monastic residency, I found I had lost touch with many of the people in my life, so I started a blog to share my experiences with family back in America who I couldn't see on a regular basis. I am still very much a student, and since I write to think things through and to articulate questions I have within myself, I am not so interested in debating things online or proving my point (which is always changing, anyway). I keep writing and posting things online primarily because I value the connections I form with people, and I am happy every time I can meet someone new who has gained something from my writing.

Gianni Grassi, a feral monk, has been practicing formless meditation since 1970. He has since received formal training in Existential Phenomenology, Abrahamic Theology, Counseling Psychology, and American Sōtō Zen. He has perpetrated karma, the purification of which in writing has become his final life’s work.

He describes his practice as the Liberation of Whole Hearted Mind (全心 - Zen Shin) in four stages: Disendarkening – The cultivation of Freedom with Suffering; Disillusioning - The cultivation of Freedom with Identity; Concentrating - The cultivation of Freedom with Difference; and Transforming - The cultivation of Freedom with the Merging of Difference and Identity.

He intensifies his zen buddhan practice under the guidance of Tenshin Reb Anderson, Roshi, who has entrusted him to speak for the benefit of all.

Gretha Aerts (b. November 19, 1947), an art teacher and artist, met Nico Tydeman in 1985, marking the beginning of a lifelong relationship as teacher/student and as friends. She has studied with Dennis Genpo Merzel, who gave her the dharma name Myoshin in 1986. He ordinated her in 1995. She lived for a few years in his Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Back in Holland in 2001, she continued to study with Nico Tydeman, Sensei and received dharma transmission in February 2011 from him. Since 1991, she was already involved in the Zen centers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Now she is the spiritual leader of Zen Center Rotterdam.

Gustav Ericcson (born July 5, 1978) is a Dharma successor of the late Gudo Wafu Nishijima-roshi (undergoing shiho with him in 2004) and also a Lutheran priest with the Church of Sweden. In 2009 he founded Anzenkai, which is an interreligious network of friends based on daily shikantaza zazen. In 2010 he left his job as a prison officer and was ordained as a Christian priest in the Church of Sweden.

Gyokuko Carlson was ordained in 1975 by Roshi Jiyu-Kennett at Shasta Abbey. In 1980 she graduated from the seminary program, then remained at Shasta Abbey to deepen her practice and to help out as a staff member until she and Kyogen married in 1982 and came to Oregon to teach. Gyokuko prefers working with people one-on-one or in small groups, and specializes in daily life practice which makes her the natural person to be in charge of the daily affairs of the Center. She currently serves as the Kanin, or Director, of Dharma Rain Zen Center in Portland.

Ian Hakuryu Forsberg (born November 10, 1957) is a Sōtō Zen priest and Dharma heir of Vanja Palmers; he is resident priest at Hoko-ji in Taos, New Mexico. He was ordained by his late teacher, Kobun Chino Otogawa. Ian was fortunate to meet Kobun during his late teens, through a family friend, one of Kobun’s elder students. He began zazen practice and was ordained by Kobun at Haiku Zendo in 1977. Ian practiced with Kobun and the Sangha at Haiku Zendo, Hidden Villa Ranch and later at Jikoji in California.

After Kobun moved to Taos, NM in the early-eighties, Ian visited a few times at Kobun’s request for sesshins and the formal Hokoji opening ceremony. In 1987 he went to Taos to spend three months working on Kobun’s house and never left.

During the past twenty-two years in Taos he has led and attended sesshins, organized and implemented projects at Hokoji, as well as working and raising a family. Along with many of Kobun’s students, he has embraced the commitment of ordinations, family, and zazen as an open and natural practice. Ian is also a member of The Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America.

Harvey Daiho Hilbert (born February 13, 1947) woke up to Zen after being shot in the head in combat in Vietnam in 1966. In spite of the resulting disability, Daiho went on to obtain a Masters and PH.D degree in Social Work and spent nearly thirty years offering contemplative practices to his clients. Daiho took up formal training in 1998 at Dharma Mountain Zendo in Cloudcroft, NM. He was ordained in 2000 and was given Dharma Transmission in 2005 by Ken Hogaku Shozen McGuire roshi. In 2000 he was installed as abbot of Daibutsuji Zen Temple and re-established the Zen Center of Las Cruces.

In 2005, he retired from his clinical practice and left Daibutsuji to establish the Order of Clear Mind Zen. The Order is based in Las Cruces, New Mexico and currently has affiliates in northern California, Virginia and West Texas. He recently retired as abbot, but continues his practice which includes Street Zen, frequent blog postings of his teaching, as well community work. In addition, he offers many educational group activities, as well as selected workshops specifically focused on recovery from war and violent trauma. Daiho is in a loving relationship with Kathryn Shukke Shin Hilbert. In his retirement, he has become a prolific artist. His work may be seen at http://daihozenart.blogspot.com.

Heiku Jaime McLeod is a Maine-based professional journalist. She currently serves as Web Content Editor for the Farmers' Almanac and has produced content for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com and The Buddhist Channel. She is also a longtime Zen practitioner and a senior student at Treetop Zen Center in Oakland, Maine, where she served as Shuso, or head trainee, in 2013.

Henry Shukman (Ryu’un-ken) is an Associate Zen Master of the Sanbo Zen lineage, based in Kamakura, Japan and guiding teacher of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has trained primarily with Joan Rieck Roshi, Zen teacher John Gaynor, Ruben Habito Roshi, and now continues his training under the guidance of Yamada Ryoun Roshi, current abbot of Sanbo Zen. Henry is dedicated to what he sees as core Zen training—clarifying our essential nature to our own satisfaction, and thereby finding true peace of mind, and then living that essential nature in every moment of daily life, in freedom, love and deep responsiveness.

As it happens, Mountain Cloud Zen Center was originally founded by a teacher whose training also took place within Sanbo Zen back in the 1950s, and Henry is the first Sanbo Zen teacher to have taught at Mountain Cloud since its founder.

Henry is a writer and poet of British-Jewish origin, who has published eight books to date, of fiction, poetry and nonfiction. He writes regularly for Tricycle, The New York Times and other publications, and his most recent book is the poetry collection Archangel. He lives near the center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife Clare and their two sons.

Born in Texas in 1968, his first kensho was as a born again Christian, which lasted until he got into drugs in high school. He experienced his next kensho after taking the formerly legal drug Ecstasy, and then several other drugs.

After becoming interested in Zen, inspired by Yoda, he moved to a traditional zen monastery in order to see if his kensho experiences were truly authentic from a certified zen masters point of view. They weren’t, so he decided to stay there and practice zen until he had reached an authentic state of enlightenment.

A former addict of alcohol, pot, cocaine, crystal, crack, sex, food and Facebook, in that order. He got sober in 2004 and now incorporates 12 steps into his teaching as koans. He calls this revolutionary process “12 Steps for Normal People”.

He completed his training at the Sweetwater Zen Center near San Diego with Seisen Saunders Roshi, where he currently teaches and works.

“My vision and hope is to continue to create a full time monastic training program that combines many styles of martial arts, qi-gong, energy healing,12 Steps for Normal People and tai-chi with the Zen. This vision is inspired by Yoda, obviously the most kick-ass character in the star wars series he is.”

Ein Eko believes that 99% of delusion is caused by emotional stuck places. Therefore, enlightenment is a primarily emotional experience that can be achieved through the practice of resolving emotional issues and patterns through koan study, 12 steps, communication practice, martial arts and 12,000 hours of zazen.

He thanks you for this opportunity to connect and invites you to visit his average blog site; zencomprehensible.com and order a t-shirt.

Hoko Karnegis has served as communications director at Hokyoji Zen Practice Community in southern Minnesota since October, 2013. Previously, she was the interim practice director at Milwaukee Zen Center, leading the center while it continued its work on clerical succession at the retirement of Tonen O’Connor.
Hoko took lay precepts in 1998 at Minnesota Zen Center, where she held a variety of practice and administrative roles. A few years later she became one of the organizers of an annual zazenkai at Kogetsu-an in Shiga-ken, Japan. In 2005 she was ordained as a novice by Shohaku Okumura, and she completed her shuso hossen that same year at Kogetsu-an. She received dharma transmission in September, 2012 and completed zuise at Eiheiji and Sojiji in November of that year.

She has spent time in several training temples in Japan, including Shogoji (Kumamoto) for the 2008 and 2011 Kokusai Angos and Toshoji Senmon Sodo (Okayama) for seven months of basic training. She is recognized by Sotoshu as nito kyoushi and as a shihanho-level teacher of baika, a type of Japanese Buddhist hymn created by Sotoshu in 1952.

Her secular career as a professional communicator was largely spent in the nonprofit and public sectors, where she did video production, multimedia, writing and editing, publication design, training and coaching for presenters, strategic planning, and many other types of communications projects. She has a B.A. in Speech Communication/Broadcast from the University of Minnesota, and in 2009 completed an interdisciplinary master’s degree there with a thesis on developing and leading the American sangha. Her practice includes serving as a resource to a variety of sanghas and practitioners for organization development, communications, and strategic planning. Until leaving the US for Toshoji, she served as one of Hokyoji Zen Practice Community’s original board members, drafting articles of incorporation, bylaws, and other organizing and governance documents and serving as its secretary. She has had several articles published in Tricycle and Buddhadharma magazines, and has contributed to a forthcoming book of teachings from Temple Ground Press.

Hozan Alan Senauke is vice-abbot of Berkeley Zen Center in California. He lives at BZC with his wife, Laurie, and their two children. Since 1991 Alan has worked with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, where he presently serves as Senior Advisor. He continues to work as a socially engaged Buddhist activist, most recently founding the Clear View Project, developing Buddhist-based resources for relief and social change. In another realm, Alan has been a student and performer of American traditional music for more than forty years.

Rev. Inryu Bobbi Ponce-Barger is resident teacher at All Beings Sangha in the District of Columbia. She was given lay ordination in 2005 in the Soto Zen Buddhist lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (founder of the San Francisco Zen Center), and given Priest Ordination in January 2013 in that same lineage. Her Buddhist name is ”ShinChi Inryu” (身知隱竜) Body Wisdom Hidden Dragon given to her by her root teacher Dairyu Michael Wenger.

Sensei James Daikan Bastien is a Dharma Successor of Roshi Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, Founder of the Zen Peacemaker Order. In addition, Daikan Sensei is an acknowledged Zen teacher in the White Plum Asanga, an association of Zen teachers in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi.
Daikan Sensei administers the Suicide Prevention Program for the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs Central Western Massachusetts Health Care System. He is a Level I iRest Yoga Nidra Teacher and a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW). In addition to his other responsibilities, Daikan Sensei provides trauma-focused psychotherapy to low income individuals and families at ServiceNet; a community, outpatient, mental health clinic.

James Zeno Myoun Ford (born July 17, 1948) is a Soto Zen teacher in the lineage of the late Houn Jiyu Peggy Kennett, with inka from John Tarrant in the Harada-Yasutani tradition. As co-founder of the Boundless Way Zen tradition with his colleagues David Dayan Rynick and Melissa Myozen Blacker, Ford is also an ordained Unitarian-Universalist minister and the author of Zen Master Who? and co-editor of The Book of Mu (both by Wisdom Publications) with Melissa Myozen Blacker. His latest book is If You're Lucky, Your Heart Will Break: Field Notes from a Zen Life

A member of both the American Zen Teacher’s Association (AZTA) and the Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA), he has his BA degree from Sonoma State University and an MDiv and MA degree from the Pacific School of Religion.

Jan Chozen Bays (born August 9, 1945) is a Zen priest of the White Plum Asanga practicing in Oregon, where she is co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery with her husband Laren Hogen Bays and also the teacher of the Zen Community of Oregon. Jan began her Zen studies in 1973 and in 1979 she received priestly ordination from Taizan Maezumi. A licensed pediatrician, Chozen Bays headed the medical center located at the Zen Center of Los Angeles for many years. In 1983 she completed the Harada-Yasutani koan curriculum and received Dharma transmission from Maezumi-roshi. Since the death of her teacher in 1995, Chozen Bays has practiced with the Rinzai priest Shodo Harada of Sogen-ji in Okayama, Japan and One Drop Zendo in Whidbey Island, Washington.
Jan has published a book for Tuttle Library titled Jizo Bodhisattva: Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice which has since been republished by Shambhala Publications as Jizo Bodhisattva: Guardian of Children, Travelers, and Other Voyagers.

Jason Nottestad discovered Zen when he was thirteen through a badly printed paperback copy of D.T. Suzuki’s An Introduction To Zen Buddhism. He began zazen practice with the Iowa City Zen Center and currently practices with the sangha at Ryumonji Zen Monastery in rural Dorchester, IA under the guidance of Shoken Winecoff, Abbott.

Jay Rinsen Weik, Sensei is the Abbot of the Great Heartland Sangha. He received full Dharma Transmission as a recognized Zen teacher by Rev. James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada/Yasutani Koan Introspection and Soto Zen traditions.

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She has worked in the area of death and dying for over thirty years and is Director of the Project on Being with Dying. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work.
A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on engaged Buddhism. Of recent, Roshi Joan Halifax is a distinguished invited scholar to the Library of Congress and the only woman and buddhist to be on the Advisory Council for the Tony Blair Foundation.
She is Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. She is founder of the Ojai Foundation, was an Honorary Research Fellow at Harvard University, and has taught in many universities, monasteries, and medical centers around the world.
She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on engaged Buddhism.

John Gendo Wolff, Sensei, has been a Zen practitioner for over 30 years. He received Jukai (lay ordination) from Dennis Genpo Merzel, Roshi, on August 1, 1992. On July 15, 2006, he was ordained as a priest in the White Plum lineage by his teacher Susan Myoyu Andersen, Roshi, and in the summer of 2008 was Shusso (head priest) of the Great Plains Zen Center at Myoshinji–Subtle Mind Temple. In June 2012, he received Dharma Transmission (Shiho) from Myoyu Roshi and is now the resident teacher at Great Wave.

Gendo Sensei is also a writer with numerous publications of poetry in a variety of magazines and in the anthology Beneath a Single Moon: The Legacy of Buddhism in American Poetry. He is also the author of the forthcoming book, The Driftwood Shrine, a collection of Dharma talks based on the work of several Buddhist-influenced American poets. He currently works as a college professor, is married, and is a father of three.

Ven. Dr. Jongmae Kenneth Park is Bishop of the Overseas Parish for the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism. He is the founder of the Institute of Buddhist Studies Austria (IBS) and the International Mook Rim Society. From 1995 to 2004 he was a Faculty Fellow and Buddhist Director at the University of Southern California and, since 2007, he has held a professorship at Loyola Marymount University—a Jesuit Catholic university. I wish to thank Ven. Jongmae for participating in this interview and for his assitance in securing documentation on the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism.

Joseph Bobrow is a Zen master and the founder of Deep Streams Zen Institute in San Francisco, authorized to teach by the late Robert Aitken, Roshi of Diamond Sangha. Deep Streams has a three part mission: Zen Buddhist practice, including authentic koan study, continuing education for mental health practitioners on Buddhism, spirituality and psychotherapy, and service to the community through the Coming Home Project, a series of holistic, community and peace-building programs for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families and care providers. Joseph is also a clinical psychologist, relational psychoanalyst, and author, whose new book, Zen and Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation, explores the fertile interplay of Buddhism and psychotherapy in relieving suffering and helping us realize and embody our true nature. He teaches throughout the United States and abroad.

The Chapel Hill Zen Center, in the Spring of 1991, asked the Abbots of the S.F. Zen Center to send Taitaku Josho Patricia Phelan to lead the group. Pat was ordained in 1977 by the former Abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, Zentatsu Richard Baker, who was Suzuki Roshi's successor. She has also studied with two of Suzuki Roshi's other disciples, Sojun Mel Weitsman and Tenshin Reb Anderson.
Pat began sitting zazen in Oregon in 1969. She moved to San Francisco in 1971 and spent several years at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.
Prior to her arrival in Chapel Hill in August, 1991, she was a Practice Leader and Director of Zen Center's residence facility in San Francisco.
In the Fall of 1995, she returned to Tassajara and completed her training by receiving Dharma Transmission from Abbot Sojun Weitsman. In October, 2000, Josho Sensei was officially installed as Abbess of the Chapel Hill Zen Center. In December, 2008, Josho Sensei traveled to Japan to participate in Zuise ceremonies at Eihei-ji and Soji-ji temples. She is married and has a daughter.

Jules Shuzen Harris, Sensei is a Zen teacher of the White Plum Asanga, the lineage of the late Taizan Maezumi roshi. A Dharma heir of Pat Enkyo O’Hara roshi, Shuzen is one of the first African-American individuals to have received Dharma transmission in the history of Zen Buddhism. He is founder of Soji Zen Center in Pennsylvania and is also an experienced martial artist. He has studied with various teachers of our times, including Taizan Maezumi-roshi, John Daido Loori-roshi, Dennis Genpo Merzel-roshi, and Pat Enkyo O’Hara-roshi. I would like to thank Shuzen-sensei for taking the time to answer our questions for this interview.

Jundo Cohen is a Soto Zen Priest, founder and teacher of the Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha. He was ordained in 2002 and subsequently received Dharma transmission from Gudo Wafu Nishijima Roshi. He is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and American Zen Teachers Association (recently a group of members acted to remove him from the organization and, pending resolution of this matter, his status is a matter of debate). He resides in Tsukuba, Japan.

Justin Whitaker is an adjunct philosophy professor and past Buddhism professor currently living in Montana. He has practiced Buddhism for 15 years in a variety of traditions and currently finds a home in the modern Vipassana tradition. He writes regularly at American Buddhist Perspectives: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/

Kakumyo Lowe-Charde has been practicing at Dharma Rain in Portland, Oregon since 1998. He was ordained in 2002 by Gyokuko and completed transmission in 2012. He has been heavily involved in the operations side of temple function and in residence for most of this time; practice and work at the temple is his full time occupation and avocation.

Kakumyo has sat over 100 week-long silent meditation retreats and sesshin practice is a primary practice and teaching vehicle for him. He has worked with a variety of Soto and Rinzai Zen teachers, including spending periods in residency with Shodo Harada Roshi, Daido Loori Roshi, and with the Bays at Great Vow Zen Monastery, and has done several SZBA-sponsored residential trainings.

He enjoys a deep appreciation for the Abhidharma, the Eihei Koroku and the Lankavatara Sutra, and an active and creative relationship with the natural world and physicality are important elements of his “turning the light within.” Kakumyo has been practicing qigong for over 20 years.

He is married to LaShelle Yoan Lowe-Charde who teaches mindfulness and communication. His responsibilities with Dharma Rain for the past several years have focused on the development of the new campus. Kakumyo currently serves Dharma Rain as the Kanin (Director of Operations and Development) and as Co-Abbot Pro Tem. He has 6 formal students.

Dr. Glenn T. Webb (born 1935) is a professor of East Asian cultural and religious history, with a specialization in medieval Japan. He was born in 1935 in southwestern Oklahoma near the Ft. Sill Artillery base. He studied classical piano and had a promising career as a performer, until at seventeen he decided to devote himself to a study of religions, and ultimately to the history and culture of Asia. In college he met and married Carol St. John (in 1955) and the two of them have been involved in Asian studies ever since (even while raising two sons.)

Dr. Webb was a graduate student and lecturer in the Art History and East Asian Studies program at the University of Chicago between 1957-1964. His main teachers there were Harrie Vanderstappen, Edwin McClellan, Joseph Kitagawa, and (briefly) Paul Tillich. For the next two years the Webb family lived in Kyoto, supported by a Fulbright while Dr. Webb did doctoral work at Kyoto University, guided by Professors Daisetsu Suzuki, Hisamatsu Shin’inchi, Masao Abe, Hasumi Shigeyasu, Mori Toru, Sawa Ryuken, and Doi Tsuigiyoshi. Under their mentorship Dr. Webb undertook Buddhist training in temples of Rinzai, Soto and Obaku Zen, as well as some temples of other Buddhist denominations. (He was ordained in the Kanzan lineage of Rinzai Zen in 1970 under Miyauchi Kanko Roshi.)

In 1966 Dr. Webb received a joint-appointment to the University of Washington’s School of Art and Jackson School of International Studies, where he co-directed the Center for Asian Arts and Kyoto Program. In 1970 he received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, and published his first book, a study of Late Medieval and Early Modern Japanese Art. The Webbs made Seattle their home during 1966-1987, but Dr. Webb spent part of almost each year in Kyoto (often accompanied by his wife and sons), where he taught, did research, and trained in Buddhist temples. Dr. Webb established the Seattle Zen Center at the University of Washington (long since evolved into the Great Plum Mountain temple of Chobozen-ji.)

In 1987 Dr. and Mrs. Webb moved to Malibu, California , where he became the director of the Institute for the Study of Asian Cultures (ISAC) at Pepperdine University. While there Dr. Webb invited many representatives of Asian governments and religions in Southern California to speak on campus. Even after the Webbs retired from Pepperdine in 2004 and moved to Palm Desert, CA, they have continued to maintain their connection with the academic institutions, and cultural and social organizations they served for so many years. Dr. and Mrs. Webb especially enjoy their on-going relationship as professors on the Kyoto and LA campuses of Bukkyo University, a Jodo-shu Buddhist school, as well as their positions as teachers of Urasenke tea.

Karen Maezen Miller, Sensei (born September 26, 1956) is a Soto Zen priest at the Hazy Moon Zen Center in Los Angeles. She received dharma transmission from Nyogen Yeo Roshi, abbot of the Hazy Moon, who is a successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. She is the author of Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood, and Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life. Miller leads retreats around the United States. She began her practice with Maezumi Roshi in 1993 and ordained as a priest in 2003.

In 2005 Kenley was ordained into the Order of Interbeing, a Buddhist organization formed by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, as a lay member. In 2012, Kenley received the Lamp of Wisdom, and is Dharmacharya Chân Niem Hy, from Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village community. Dharma Teachers (Dharmacharyas) are members of the Core Community of the Order of Interbeing who have been selected as teachers based on their stability in the practice and ability to lead a happy life. He has been supporting sangha work in Southern California through leading days of mindfulness and teaching workshops based from his home in Ojai since 2005. Kenley is a lifelong pacifist, has been a vegetarian since 1989, and enjoys politics.

Kipp Ryodo Hawley (born 1954) is a Sensei with the White Plum Asanga of the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi and a Dharma heir of Wendy Egyoku Nakao Roshi, Abbess of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Sensei Ryodo joined ZCLA in 1980 and received the precepts in a Jukai ceremony from Maezumi Roshi the following year. Since 1999 he has assisted Roshi Egyoku as a lay teacher, eventually receiving dharma transmission from her in 2007. Along with continuing to teach at Zen Center of Los Angeles, Sensei Ryodo has led the Westchester Zen Circle in Westchester, California, since 2009. Sensei Ryodo also gives workshops in the Three-Step method of Zen Mindfulness, which he has been developing since 2002.

Kobutsu Shindo Kevin Malone (born 1950) is an American Rinzai Zen priest. A native of England, Kobutsu-osho is the founder of The Engaged Zen Foundation and continues his association with Shodo Harada-roshi. Much of Kobutsu’s work over the years has centered around bringing Zen practice to America’s prison system. He has served as spiritual adviser for individuals executed in Arkansas and Florida. A participant in the American civil rights movement and a conscientious objector during the War in Vietnam, social justice activism and anti-sexual abuse activism are very much a part of his ongoing practice.

Kokyo Henkel (born 1966) trained for 19 years in residence at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center (most recently as Tanto, or Head of Practice), Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, No Abode Hermitage in Mill Valley, and Bukkokuji Monastery in Japan. He was ordained as a priest in 1994 by Tenshin Anderson Roshi, receiving Dharma Transmission from him in 2010. Kokyo came to Santa Cruz Zen Center in 2009, where he is currently Head Teacher.

Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, (born October 5, 1969) is a Senior Soto Zen Priest. He was born in Syracuse, NY in 1969. In 1989, he started practicing zazen with John Daido Loori Roshi while attending the poetics program at Naropa University. Since 1992 he has practiced with Enkyo O’Hara Roshi at the Village Zendo. He became a formal student in 1997, and received the lay precepts in 1998. He was ordained as a novice Soto Zen Priest in 2002, and was empowered as Osho, Senior Zen Priest, in 2009. Koshin was empowered as Hoshi, Dharma Holder, in 2012.
He serves as the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, with Robert Chodo Campbell, of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. He is a ACPE Supervisory Candidate. Koshin leads the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at NYZCCCC’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. Koshin is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. He is a co-founder of the Buddhist Psychotherapy Collective. He is the Co-Director of Contemplative Care Services for the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center and he serves on the Medical Ethics Team at Beth Israel. He gives plenary addresses, workshops and retreats on contemplative based approaches to leadership and care, and meditation in a variety of settings from corporations to national healthcare conferences.

Koun Franz is a Sōtō Zen priest born in Helena, Montana. He was ordained in 2001, then trained at Zuiōji and Shōgōji monasteries. From 2006 to 2010, he served as resident priest of the Anchorage Zen Community. He recently relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, from Japan, where he trained, translated, and taught at traditional monasteries. He currently leads practice at Zen Nova Scotia.

Kankan Kurt Spellmeyer is a Zen teacher in the Rinzai Zen and Obaku Zen traditions who has trained with Genki Takabayashi roshi and Kangan Glenn Webb (founders of the former Seattle Zen Center, known today as Dai Bai Zan Cho Bo Zen Ji). Spellmeyer, a professor of English at Rutgers University, has served as the practice leader of Cold Mountain Sangha at Rutgers since 1994. In 1991 he was authorized to teach by Kangan Glenn Webb, a Dharma heir of Miyauchi Kanko roshi of Japan. Kankan has been a practitioner of Zen meditation for more than thirty-three years.

Kuzan Peter Schireson is currently Practice Leader at Empty Nest Zendo in California. He was ordained as a Lay Teacher by Sojun Mel Weitsman of Berkeley Zen Center in 2003 and as a Soto Zen priest by Chikudo Lew Richmond of Vimala Zen Center in 2008. Peter was originally introduced to practice by Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1964 and has practiced since then primarily in the Suzuki Roshi lineage in California as well as with Keido Fukushima Roshi, the late Rinzai abbot of Tofuku-ji Monastery in Kyoto, Japan. He is the husband of Myoan Grace Schireson and is especially interested in Zen practice as it arises in and enlivens everyday life in the world. Peter is also a partner in a market research company, a grandfather, and a student of classical guitar.
In May of 2012 Kuzan received dharma transmission from his teacher, Chikudo Lew Richmond.

Abbot Kyogen Carlson is a Soto Zen priest. He was ordained by Houn Jiyu-Kennett Roshi in 1972 at Shasta Abbey, where he trained as a monk for five years before receiving full certification as a teacher (Dharma Transmission and inka). He remained at Shasta Abbey another five years to continue training, and to serve as a staff member and personal assistant to Roshi Kennett.
In 1986, after much discussion, Kyogen and Gyokuko Carlson resigned their membership in the organization headquartered at Shasta Abbey. Dharma Rain Zen Center is an independent organization.
Current interests include participating in interfaith groups and engaging in dialogue with Evangelical Christians.

Laurie Kido Lyons is the Director of the Naples branch of Open Mind Zen. www.openmindzennaples.com. She has been practicing Zen since 2003. In 2010, she took jukai, the Buddhist precepts. In 2011 she became an Assistant Teacher and Lay Monk in the Open Mind Zen School. She continues her study of Zen with Sensei Al Fusho Rapaport. Laurie has been practicing yoga since 2001. She studied Ashtanga Yoga with its founder, the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India. She has been teaching yoga since 2003. Laurie currently teaches Yoga and Zen at Love Yoga Center in Naples, FL. www.loveyogacenter.com. She also brings her practice into her work as an orchestral musician. She has performed as a percussionist with the Naples Philharmonic since 1999.

Laurie Senauke started formal Zen practice in 1980 at San Francisco Zen Center; she worked at Greens restaurant back in the day, and lived at Tassajara for three years. In 1989 she married Hozan Alan Senauke, moved to Berkeley Zen Center, and has been raising her family there ever since her daughter Silvie was born in 1990. Her son Alex was born in 1994. After several years of intense focus on childrearing, she gradually returned to more involvement in formal practice. She served as head student (shuso) at BZC in 2003 and received lay recognition in 2006. She is also studying and practicing hypnotherapy (see www.interludeofease.com).

Robert E. Buswell Jr. holds the Irving and Jean Stone Endowed Chair in Humanities at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is also Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies and founding director of the university’s Center for Buddhist Studies and Center for Korean Studies. Buswell is widely recognized as one of the premier Western specialists on Korean Buddhism and the broader East Asian Zen tradition. He has published sixteen books and some forty articles on various aspects of the Korean, Chinese, and Indian traditions of Buddhism, as well as on Korean religions more broadly. His books include The Zen Monastic Experience (Princeton, 1992), Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen (Honolulu, 1991), and Religions of Korea in Practice (Princeton, 2007). He is also editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference, 2004). Before returning to academe, he spent seven years as an ordained Buddhist monk in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Korea.

Melissa Myozen Blacker, Roshi, is a Zen teacher and the Abbot of Boundless Way Zen, a school of Zen Buddhism with practice centers throughout New England. She is one of the resident teachers at Boundless Way Temple (Mugendo-ji) in Worcester, MA.

Merry White Benezra is the author of Special Karma: A Zen Novel of Love and Folly, which you can learn more about at http://specialkarma.wordpress.com/.She has also has a blog about poetry and poetics at http://studiousmuse.wordpress.com/.Merry lives and works in Mountain View, California.

Ven. Frances Mitra Bishop-sensei is a Zen teacher and Dharma heir of Ven. Philip Kapleau-roshi (who she trained with beginning in 1976). In 1996, Lola Lee, Osho, who passed away in 1997, asked the Ven. Mitra Bishop-sensei to guide her students in their practice. Beginning Zen practice in 1974, Mitra-sensei is a Dharma heir of Ven. Philip Kapleau-roshi. Ordained as a Zen priest in 1986, she completed her formal training at the Rochester Zen Center. In 1992 she went to Okayama, Japan, where she continued to practice under the guidance of the Ven. Harada Shodo-roshi, Abbot of Sogen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple. When Mitra-sensei returned to the United States in 1996, she was formally sanctioned to teach by Kapleau-roshi, and in that same year was asked to come to Hidden Valley Zen Center to teach. Concurrently, she established Mountain Gate, a monastic practice center in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Taking the admonition, “There’s no beginning to enlightenment, no end to practice,” to heart, she continues to train intensively with Harada-roshi, including spending several weeks each year at Sōgen-ji.

Rev. Myo Denis Lahey (born July 14, 1951) is a Soto Zen priest practicing in the Shunryu Suzuki lineage. Myo is practice leader at Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco and at Iron Bell Zendo (now Valley Streams Zen Sangha) in Sacramento, California. A Dharma heir of Tenshin Reb Anderson, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America (SZBA) and is a member of the Association for Soto Zen Buddhism of Japan (ASZB). Raised in an observant Roman Catholic home, Myo was drawn to religion and spirituality at an early age and found Zen Buddhism in his teens. He began sitting in 1969 with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and befriended many San Francisco Zen Center practitioners and teachers, including Issan Dorsey.

Myōan Grace Schireson is head teacher and Abbess of the Central Valley Zen Foundation She received dharma transmission in the Suzuki Roshi lineage by Sojun Mel Weitsman, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center. Grace has also studied Rinzai Zen in Japan with Keido Fukushima Roshi, the late Abbot of Tofukuji Monastery in Kyoto, Japan who asked her to teach the koans she had studied with him during her training there. Grace is the head teacher of the Central Valley Zen Foundation and has founded and leads three Zen groups and a Zen retreat center in California. Grace is also a clinical psychologist who has specialized in women and families. She has been married for forty-eight years to her husband, Kuzan Peter Schireson, and has two grown sons and four grandchildren.

Rev. Nonin Chowaney, an American Zen Master, is a Buddhist priest trained in the Soto tradition of Zen Master Dogen. Nonin was ordained by Rev. Dainin Katagiri in Minnesota and has studied at Tassajara Zen Monastery in California and in Japan at Zuio-ji and Shogo-ji Monasteries. He received formal Dharma Transmission from Rev. Katagiri and has been certified to teach by him and by the Soto Zen Church in Japan.
Nonin lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where he is Abbot of Nebraska Zen Center / Heartland Temple. He is a regular speaker at many schools, colleges, and universities and leads Zen Buddhist retreats and workshops throughout the United States.
Nonin is also an accomplished brush calligrapher. He learned the art while training in Japan and has been practicing it for many years. His work hangs in homes and Zen Temples throughout the world.

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, PhD, is the Abbot of The Village Zendo. A Soto Zen Priest and certified Zen Teacher, She is a lineage holder in both the Soto and Rinzai lines of Zen Buddhism, through the White Plum Lineage. Roshi currently serves as the Guiding Spiritual Teacher for the New York Center For Contemplative Care. She is a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Family, a spiritual, study and social action association. Enkyo Roshi’s focus is on the expression of Zen through caring, service, and creative response. Her Five Expressions of Zen form the matrix of study at the Village Zendo: Meditation, Study, Communication, Action, and Caring.

Rev. Patricia Dai-En Bennage found her path on Buddhism with A Manual of Zen by D. T. Suzuki in 1958. A resident of Japan for 23 years, she began practice with the Rinzai Zen Master Omori Sogen Roshi in Tokyo in 1975. She later received priest precepts from Noda Daito Roshi, and trained at the NiSodo, the Women's training monastery in Nagoya. After receiving Transmission, she graduated from the Shike` program ending in 1990. She practiced with the Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh before founding Mt. Equity Zendo in 1991. She is the translator of Abbess Shundo Aoyama Roshi's book Zen Seeds, and interpreted for her for the East-West Spiritual Exchanges between Buddhist and Christian contemplatives.
While in Japan, Rev. Dai-En assisted in leading zazen at Kasamatsu Women’s Prison. Here in the U.S. Rev. Dai-En led zazen at several federal prisons in the area. After leading zazen at Bucknell University for 12 years, she has asked Prof. Nancy Nanshin White to instruct in her place. Installed as Abbess in 2005, Rev. Dai-En is a Jun-Shike`, or Associate Master Teacher, authorized to assist other teachers’ disciples and assist in major ceremonies.
In 2008, Rev. Dai-En was one of twenty Buddhist women presented with the "Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award," given by the United Nations International Women's Day Association for the promotion of the status of women.

Mushim (Patricia) Ikeda is a Buddhist teacher, author, mentor, and community activist. She teaches meditation retreats for people of color, women, and social justice activists nationally. She is a core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center near where she lives in Oakland, California.

Roshi Paul Genki Kahn is Founder and Spiritual Director of ZEN GARLAND: An Interfaith Community and Order for Zen Practice, Education, Healing & Service with its residential training center and headquarters in Airmont, NY, USA. Roshi Genki is a Zen Teacher, a Zen Buddhist Priest, and a licensed psychotherapist who has developed quality mental health programs in underserved areas for the past 25 years. Roshi Genki received Final Vows as a Soto Zen Priest from Roshi Dennis Genpo Merzel. He is also a Dharma Successor of Zen Master Bernie Glassman and received Inka from him.

Peter Levitt was born in New York City in 1946. His Zen practice began in the late sixties in San Francisco, and he received lay entrustment from Zoketsu Norman Fischer, which authorized him to teach in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi. He is the founder and guiding teacher of the Salt Spring Zen Circle on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, where he resides with his wife, poet Shirley Graham, and their son, Tai.

Born and raised in New York City, Peter spent most of his adult life in northern New England, where he developed a deep, enduring love of the outdoors. Over the years he has hiked, biked, canoed, cross-country skied, and snowshoed across much of the northeastern U.S. This passion, coupled with insights he has gained on the philosophical similarities between Zen Buddhism and the Deep Ecology movement, led to the development of Moosis Zen Journeys.

For the past two decades he has worked in the fields of addiction and mental health treatment. He is currently the Director of Outpatient Services for Crisis & Counseling Centers, Inc., in Augusta, ME.

Rafe Martin is founding teacher at Endless Path Zendo, a Diamond Sangha temple in Rochester, NY.. A fully lay-ordained, and Dharma-transmitted teacher officially in Kapleau lineage, he offers the complete Harada-Yasutani/ Diamond Sangha koan curriculum. He is also a noted author and storyteller. His latest book "Just Like Us: The Buddha Has Difficulties -- Jataka Tales and Us," is due from Wisdom Publications, Fall 2017.

Ray Ruzan Cicetti Sensei (born May 10, 1950) is dharma heir to Robert Jinsen Kennedy roshi and is a member of the White Plum Asanga. He is the resident lay teacher at Empty Bowl Zendo in Morristown, N.J. He is married and has a private practice in psychotherapy. Ray has also authored a chapter in the book Walking In Two Worlds: The Relational Self In Theory, Practice, And Community, available through Amazon.com by clicking the provided link.

Richard Reishin Collins was born in Eugene, Oregon September 4, 1952. He grew up in Southern California and graduated from the University of Oregon (BA Honors, English), and the University of California, Irvine (MA, English; PhD, English). He has held a Fulbright-Hays dissertation fellowship for research in London (1980-81), an NEH fellowship to study at Columbia University, and a Leverhulme Commonwealth/USA fellowship to teach at Swansea University in Wales. He also spent five years in Eastern Europe, teaching as a Fulbright lecturer at the Universities of Bucharest and Timisoara in Romania and at the American University in Bulgaria. He spent ten years in New Orleans, where he was RosaMary Endowed Professor of English at Xavier University and edited the Xavier Review. He has been chair of the Department of Arts, English, and Humanities at Louisiana State University, Alexandria. He is currently Dean of Arts and Humanities at California State University, Bakersfield.

During his time in New Orleans he trained at the New Orleans Zen Temple, receiving bodhisattva ordination in 2001, monastic ordination in 2010, and permission to teach in 2012, all from Robert Livingston Roshi. He has edited AZA books by M. C. Dalley and Philippe Coupey, as well as his recent edition of Taisen Deshimaru’s Mushotoku Mind: The Heart of the Heart Sutra (Hohm Press, 2012). He has also published articles on Charles Johnson’s novel Oxherding Tale (Religion and the Arts) and Kim Ki-Duk’s film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (New Orleans Review). His poetry has appeared in a number of journals, including his zazen sequence Bodhidharma’s Eyelids (Exquisite Corpse). He founded the Zen Fellowship of Alexandria in 2007 and the Zen Fellowship of Bakersfield in 2010.

He is married to Leigh Collins, a social worker and yoga teacher, and has two daughters, Cyleste and Isabel, and two grandchildren, Milo and Chloe.

Anka Rick Spencer (born 1947) finally began to discover in the early 1980′s that Zen is a practise and not just a topic for study. He attended his first sesshin with Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1982 and continued practising for several years in Vancouver, B.C. with a group of of Sasaki Roshi’s students. Rick first met Zoketsu Norman Fischer in 1995 and received lay ordination from Norman in 2000 just before his first trip to Mexico. That was the beginning of the happy process that brought Rick to live and practise in Mexico. Rick received priest ordination from Norman in 2004 and Dharma transmission in 2011. Since 2005 Rick has made his home in Puerto Vallarta where he is resident priest of the Puerto Vallarta zen group, Puerto Compasivo. He also visits other communities in Mexico to support and encourage people and groups interested in the practise of Soto Zen in the Everyday Zen family style.

Rev. Robert Chodo Campbell is a Senior Chaplain with the Contemplative Care Services Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center. Chodo co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Buddhist organization to offer fully accredited chaplaincy training in America. He began his practice in 1994, and received novice priest ordination in 2005. He was named a Village Zendo Dharma Holder in 2012. Chodo has been a student of Enkyo Roshi since 2000.

Robert Joshin Althouse Roshi is a fully empowered Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage and a fully ordained Zen Buddhist Priest. Roshi and his wife, Rev. June Ryushin Tanoue, co-founded the Zen Life & Meditation Center. Roshi is the Abbot of the Zen Center and it's primary teacher and meditation instructor.

Althouse has studied with the following Zen Masters: Roshi Taizan Maezumi, Roshi Robert Aitken, Roshi Bernie Glassman, and his transmission teacher, Roshi Nicolee Jikyo McMahon. He has also studied with the following Tibetan Vajrayana Masters: Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Gyaltrul Rinpoche. He also studied Nonviolent Communication with Marshall Rosenberg.

Althouse currently lives in Oak Park, Illinois with his wife June Tanoue, where they run the Zen Life & Meditation Center.

Ruben L.F. Habito (born 1947), a native of the Philippines, went to Japan in his early twenties as a Jesuit seminarian, and began training in Zen under the guidance of Yamada Koun Roshi, then head of the Sanbo Kyodan community, at the San-Un Zendo in Kamakura Japan. Ordained Jesuit priest in 1976, and having completed Doctoral studies in Buddhism at the University of Tokyo, he taught at Sophia University, all the while continuing his Zen practice. He was authorized as Zen Teacher by Yamada and given the Zen Name Keiun-ken (Grace Cloud) in 1988. He left the Jesuit order in 1989 and moved to Dallas, Texas. He teaches at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Since 1991 he has been guiding teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center community in Dallas. He is married to Maria Reis Habito, with whom he has two sons, Florian and Benjamin.

Scott Edelstein is a widely published writer, ghostwriter, collaborator, writing and publishing consultant, and literary agent. He has also been a book, magazine, and newspaper editor; a newspaper and magazine journalist; and a freelance writer for many businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations. Over the past 40 years, Scott has published 15 books and over 150 short pieces. His newest book, Sex and the Spiritual Teacher, was published in 2011 by Wisdom Publications.

Seikai Luebke (born 1956, Pomona, California), was ordained into the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition by Rev. Jiyu-Kennett in March, 1978, at Shasta Abbey in Mt. Shasta, California. Formerly the Zen Mission Society, Rev. Kennett created the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives in the early 1980s; Rev. Seikai is a senior monk and Master of the O.B.C. Dharma Transmission by Rev Jiyu-Kennett, April, 1980. Rev Seikai served briefly as prior of the Berkeley Buddhist Priory (Albany, California) during the period 1984-86. Returning to Shasta Abbey in 1986, he was a resident senior monk until November, 2000.

From that date to the present, Rev. Seikai has been a resident of Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple, in Ventura County, California. This temple was the Santa Barbara Zen Priory before moving to rural Ventura County in early 2000.

Like other monks of the OBC, Rev. Seikai does not travel and teach widely away from his home temple, focusing instead on everyday Buddhist practice. Some of his writings may be found on the Pine Mountain Buddhist Temple website, www.pinemtnbuddhisttemple.org.

Bruce Seiryu Blackman (born November 6, 1942) is a Zen teacher and a Dharma heir of Sr. Janet Jinne Richardson Roshi. A member of the White Plum Asanga he began Zen practice in Southeast Asia in 1981 with Sr. Elaine MacInnes Roshi of the Sanbo-Kyodan school and later with the Diamond Sangha of Robert Aitken Roshi. In 1996 he became a student of Richardson-roshi and joined Clare Sangha, becoming a dharma holder in 2001. He received Dharma transmission from Richardson-roshi in 2004. He is the spiritual director of ZCB/Clare Sangha and a storyteller in the koan tradition.
Bruce was a foreign service officer for 25 years in East Asia, Latin America, and the senior foreign service, specializing in economic program development. Fluent in Spanish, he received master’s degrees from UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University. Since 1995, he works with a restorative justice agency, on the board and in the jails teaching yoga and meditation to inmates. Bruce was also elected to the board of an international adoption agency. He and his wife, Joan, reside in northern Virginia, not far from their grandchildren.

Shodo Spring (b. May 9, 1948) is a Soto Zen priest. Currently she hosts Mountains and Waters Alliance, plus a Zen permaculture farm and a small sitting group in southern Minnesota. She received dharma transmission from Shohaku Okumura-roshi in 2012, after studying with him, with Tenshin Anderson-roshi, and originally with Dainin Katagiri-roshi. In 2013 Shodo organized and led the Compassionate Earth Walk, a 3-month spiritual walk along the proposed Keystone XL route through the Great Plains. She is a grandmother, a retired psychotherapist, an
environmental activist, and a published author.

Sojun Diane Martin started her training at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1970, where she studied with Shunryu Suzuki. She began studying with Katagiri Roshi in 1979 and was lay ordained by him in 1985. She was priest ordained by Yvonne Rand in 1995 and received Dharma transmission from Karen Sunna, Abbess of the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, in 2001. Three of the four teachers on Diane's transmission committee are of the Suzuki lineage. Diane also holds a doctorate in psychology and is a practicing psychoanalyst.

Watch a recent interview with Stephan by Rick Archer of Buddha at the Gas Pump.

An internationally known author, psychotherapist, and teacher of mindfulness and spiritual awakening, Stephan leads regular retreats and offers spiritual counseling and mentoring to people throughout the world. His popular guidebook Meditation for Dummies has sold over a quarter of a million copies worldwide, and his digital program Mindfulness Meditation (with Mental Workout) has been praised in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. His new book, Beyond Mindfulness, is now available on Amazon.com. Stephan trained for many years as a Buddhist monk and edited the magazine Yoga Journal for a decade. His other books include Buddhism for Dummies and Wake Up Now. Learn More

Stephen Batchelor was a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan and Zen traditions for ten years. Known for his agnostic and secular approach to the Buddhadharma, he has authored several books, including the bestselling Buddhism Without Beliefs. His latest book is Confession of a Buddhist Atheist. He lives in France with his wife Martine and teaches seminars and leads meditation retreats worldwide.

Stuart Lachs was born in 1940 and raised in Brooklyn, NY. He attended Brooklyn College, part of the NYC college system, where he received a B.A. and M.S., majoring in mathematics. He worked at Bell Labs in the mathematical physics department for a year and afterward, in the ship design industry for a few years.
He started Zen practice in 1967 in NYC. That Spring he went to San Francisco because he had heard that the San Francisco Zen Center was opening the first American Zen monastery. With luck and the generosity of the Center, he was accepted and attended the first training period of Tassajara, their new monastery.
He returned to NYC and became a member of the Zen Studies Society. He remained a member for about two and a half years and then went to Maine to study with Walter Nowick at what became Moon Spring Hermitage. For many years, he was head monk, head of the Board of Directors, and in charge of new members, instructing them in meditation, zendo protocol, and the ways of the group.
After eleven years he left and returned to NYC. Shortly, he found the Chan Meditation Group under the leadership of Shifu Sheng-yen, a Chinese teacher from Taiwan. He did not become a member of the group at first, though after a few years he was given much responsibility, including the important task of giving private interviews during seven day retreats and running classes when Shifu returned to Taiwan, every other three month period. He eventually became a member. From 1982–1999, he traveled frequently, spending three months in a Korean Monastery (Songgwang Sa), some time in Japan at both a Rinzai and Soto temple, and two stays at Shifu’s monastery in Taiwan. During one of the stays in Taiwan, he did a solitary thirty day retreat. He also visited the Diamond Sangha in Hawaii twice, and spent two months with the London Zen Group as a guest of Morinaga roshi, their Japanese teacher. He stayed at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, Ca. twice for a few months at a time, as well as visiting other places.
In the early/mid 1990’s he became interested in an academic look at Zen, which included institutional history, myth making, and the interaction of Zen and the state. It was an eye opener, as he had seen much over the years that bothered him and did not make sense, but he could not put it all together. He also became interested in the sociology of religion. His articles are the result of years of practicing with Zen groups combined with his academic studies of Chan/Zen as well as the sociology of religion and institutions. Since 1999 he has practiced with a few friends or on his own.

Susan Ji-on Postal, teacher and founder of the Empty Hand Zen Center, entered Buddhist practice in 1970. Originally learning from a teacher of Dzogchen in the Tibetan tradition, she began Zen studies with Glassman Roshi at the Zen Community of New York in 1980. In 1987 she continued under the guidance of Maurine Myo-on Stuart who ordained her as Zen Priest at the Rye Meeting House in 1988. Prior to Maurine’s death in 1990, Susan received the encouragement and blessing of her teacher to continue guiding practice for the growing Sangha in Rye. Since 2000, Susan has been studying with Darlene Cohen, Zen Teacher of the Russian River Zendo. On January 18, 2008, Susan received Dharma Transmission in the Soto Lineage of Suzuki Roshi from her teacher in Guerneville, California. Michael Wenger, Dean of Buddhist Studies of the San Francisco Zen Center and Darlene's teacher, served as guiding instructor for this moving eight day Ceremony of Entrustment which marks the completion of training.
With graduate studies in social anthropology and geriatric counseling, Susan has retired after many years of work in homes for the aged. She is the mother of two grown children and enjoys being the grandmother of five. Now, with the opportunity to be teacher-in-residence in New Rochelle, she finds a sense of deep fulfillment in living and working as a "temple priest" full time. Susan participates in the Western Buddhist Teachers Conference and in the American Zen Teachers Association. She has long been active in Interfaith Dialogue, in both church and university settings.

Taigu Turlur began Zen Practice at age 13(!) in his native France, was ordained in 1983 at age 18(!) by Rev. Mokudo Zeisler of the Deshimaru Lineage, and received Dharma Transmission from Chodo Cross in 2003. Devoted to the sewing of the Kesa (Buddhist Robes), he now resides in Osaka, Japan and teaches at Treeleaf Sangha.

While the Matsuoka lineage has been scrutinized in the past due to various circumstances, in 2007 Elliston received Dharma transmission from Shohaku Okumura of Sanshin Zen Community in Bloomington, Indiana. As a consequence, this has allowed Taiun Michael to establish the Silent Thunder Order and invite other Matsuoka Dharma heirs to come to the Atlanta Zen Center for an ango and potentially a shiho ceremony, thus giving them transmission in a formally recognized Soto lineage.

Todd Hotai Watson is a Dharma Holder in the Soto Zen lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi and is the founder and resident teacher of Walking Tree Zen of Keene, New Hampshire. He practices with his teacher, Sensei Peter Seishin Wohl, at Treetop Zen Center in Oakland, Maine, where he practiced previously with the late Zen teachers Stefano Mui Barragato and Margaret Ne-Eka Barragato. Prior to practicing in the Soto tradition he practiced for over a decade with teachers in the Korean Linji tradition. Todd lives in rural New Hampshire with his wife, three children and two dozen pets.

Trudi Jinpu Hirsch Abramson, is a Senior Soto Zen Priest in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi. She was born in NYC in 1951. She started practicing zazen with John Daido Loori Roshi and she moved to the Zen Mountain Monastery in 1981. She received Jukai in 1990, and ordained on Oct 20th, 1991. Jinpu left Zen Mountain Monastery in 1998, to continue her clinical pastoral education training, which she began in 1997. She received Denkai from Enkyo O’Hara Roshi, on December 30th, 1998. Jinpu became the first Buddhist ACPE (Association of Clinical Pastoral Education) Supervisor in 2000.
Prior to her formal Dharma practice, Jinpu was the Principal Dancer, for the Bot D’Or Dance Company in Tel Aviv, Israel; a Soloist in Les Grandes Ballet Canadien, Canada; and a Soloist for the Harkness Ballet Company in New York City.
Currently, Jinpu is an ACPE Chaplain Supervisor and Zen priest. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. She was the acting Director and Chaplain Supervisor for Beth Israel Medical Center for four years. As part of the core teaching team of New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Jinpu teaches with Koshin Paley Ellison, Robert Chodo Campblell and Enkyo O’Hara Roshi. She serves as the primary ACPE Supervisor for the Center’s Buddhist CPE Training Programs.

Yozen Peter Schneider first studied with Shunryu Suzuki-roshi in 1962 and returned to continue in 1967. He served as the second director of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, as well as president of the San Francisco Zen Center. Peter received priest ordination from Suzuki-roshi in 1970. In 2002 he received dharma transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman-roshi of the Berkeley Zen Center.

A practitioner of Nebraska Zen Center since 2001, Vicki Grunwald received the dharma name Zenryu (Zen Dragon) when she took the precepts in 2005. She became a volunteer in the prisons later that year. After meeting the inmates and seeing the sincerity of their practice, Vicki was inspired to volunteer in all 4 prisons that had a Buddhist group and began operating as a lay minister in 2006. She lives in Omaha with her 3 cats.

About Sweeping Zen

Established in 2009 as a grassroots initiative, Sweeping Zen is a digital archive of information on Zen Buddhism. Featuring in-depth interviews, an extensive database of biographies, news, articles, podcasts, teacher blogs, events, directories and more, this site is dedicated to offering the public a range of views in the sphere of Zen Buddhist thought. We are also endeavoring to continue creating lineage charts for all Western Zen lines, doing our own small part in advancing historical documentation on this fabulous import of an ancient tradition. Come on in with a tea or coffee. You're always bound to find something new.

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